AutoCAD - Rotating the contents of a “Viewport” Using “VPROTATEASSOC”

By Martin Phelps 

On occasions, once a viewport has been created, the viewport contents may require rotating. One way to achieve this, (but this is not the only way) is by using the “System Variable” “Vprotateassoc”. This variable has two possible values “0” and “1”.

If the value is set to “0” the contents of the viewport will not be rotated.

If the value is set to “1” the contents of the “Viewport” will be rotated to match the rotation of the “Viewport”.

Some situations may require the viewport contents to be “Rotated”, but position of the “Viewport” needs to be returned to the original position for presentation purposes, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

This can be done as follows.

Make Sure “Paper Space” is active.

Type in “Vprotateassoc” and set to 1, this will allow the “Rotation” of the viewport contents, as well as the “Viewport”.

Using the “Rotate” command, select the “Viewport”, specify a base rotation point and either specify the rotation angle or rotate by point selection. (See previous blog, “Rotating an object to an existing Line). Both the viewport and its contents have been rotated, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

The orientation of the “Viewport” and its objects appear rotated, but the orientation of the actual objects remain unchanged in the model.

The size of the “Viewport” may be changed by selecting the edge of the viewport and dragging the grips.

To improve the drawing presentation the “Viewport” could now be rotated back to its original position.

Again type-in “Vprotateassoc” and set back to “0”, so the “Viewport” contents will not “Rotate”.

Using the “Rotate” command select the “Viewport” and “Rotate” it back to its original angle, again using the “Grips” to change the size of the “Viewport” if required, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

The finished plotted drawing is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4.